Back in Chattanooga, Frank Harrison (left) and crew pose with his 1960 Road America 200 winner, the spectacular Le Mans Streamliner, bought sight unseen just before the race.However, there wasn't time to change the Camoradi colors.(Photo:William Oosthoek) » More Photos

POTENTIAL REALIZED

Meanwhile, in another attempt to stimulate domestic interest, Maserati entered the Tipo 60 prototype in the September 1959 hillclimb at Pontedecimo-Giovi. Orsi assigned the car to Odoardo Govoni, 1958 winner with a 200S of the Italian Hillclimb Championship. Although still unfamiliar with the Tipo 60, Govoni recorded a practice time six seconds faster than that of Giorgio Scarlatti in a new Ferrari Dino 196. The organizers could not believe any car could be that fast and promptly disallowed the time.

When Govoni won the event in a time even better than his practice showing, the Ferrari team cried foul. They accused Maserati of running the Tipo 60 with a 2.5-liter engine and demanded a teardown. Bertocchi was forced to spend many hours disassembling the head, but proved that the Birdcage ran the proper 2.0-liter unit.

Finally the Italians realized what great potential the Tipo 60 had. A number of local orders came in, but these would have to wait their turn. By late September the production focus had shifted completely at the factory, with the 2.0-liter version playing second fiddle. After Govoni's hillclimb victory, the Tipo 60 prototype was primarily used as a demonstration car. Bertocchi took potential buyers and visiting race drivers on high-speed exhibition runs around the Autodromo. One of these visitors during the third week of September was Lloyd "Lucky" Casner. The story of Casner-cashrich with corporate sponsorship money for his Camoradi team and negotiating a deal with the Orsis for semi-works team status- appeared in the July/August 2005 issue of VM. Their entire Birdcage production line already taken, Maserati had only one way to provide Camoradi with a car for the upcoming World Championship: drop a 2.9 liter engine into the Tipo 60 demo car. Thus chassis 2451 became a Tipo 61. The ensuing scramble to get enough Camoradi Birdcages built led to delays for Causey and Hinkle, while the Italian Tipo 60 orders were pushed out even further.

Like the Tipo 60 at Rouen, the Tipo 61 won its maiden event. It was E.D. Martin who gave chassis 2453 that first victory, during the Dothan, Alabama Regionals in late October 1959. Martin, the owner of a Columbus, Georgia, TV station and various movie theaters, twice beat up-and-coming Jim Hall in Frank Harrison's 450S Maserati, in the 10-lap sprint and the 30-lap feature.

Although he set the fastest lap with the big 450S, Jim Hall saw the writing on the wall. He and older brother Dick ran the Dallas-based Hall/Shelby agency (they bought out Shelby two years earlier, but maintained his name for publicity reasons), also the Maserati distributor for the Southwest. It did not take long for the Hall brothers and Frank Harrison to place orders for their own Tipo 61s. However, due to the sudden popularity of the Birdcage, it would take until April and July 1960 before their orders were filled.

In mid-November Martin's chassis 2453 was still the only Birdcage on U.S. soil. After the Dothan success, he entered the car in the last SCCA National for 1959 at Daytona Speedway, opened just six months earlier. On lap 2 Martin crashed heavily, almost killing himself. Chassis 2453 had the shortest race career of all Birdcages; it was stripped of its few useable parts and subsequently scrapped.

By the time the season-ending Nassau Speed Week started in December, three more Tipo 61s had landed: Katskee's 2454, Garber's 2455 and Casner's converted Tipo 60 prototype, 2451. Swiss-American Gus Andrey campaigned Garber's Birdcage and did well with a second-place finish in the Governor's Trophy behind Moss's Aston Martin DBR2. Later in the week, Carroll Shelby took the Camoradi car into the lead on lap six of the main event, the 49-lap International Trophy. Ahead by 86 seconds, and counting his part of the $13,000 purse, the Texan was forced out on lap 32 when de Dion rear axle broke. Katskee's Birdcage suffered a similar fate. As for Andrey, two laps before the finish he was running a strong second behind Constantine's Aston Martin DBR2, when the Tipo 61 collided with a back marker. Forced to retire, Andrey was still awarded seventh overall based on laps completed. The result of the first multi-Birdcage effort turned out to be disappointing, but what promise!

Part 2 continues next week, as the Camoradi Team looks ahead to six months of World Championship campaigning.

Author Willem Oosthoek, a retired banker, is a recognized authority on the subject of Birdcage Maseratis. He is often consulted by private owners, museums and auction houses on competition Maseratis. His book "Birdcage to Supercage" is still available at www.daltonwatson.com His recent books on the history of the 450S and Tipo 151 Maseratis are available at wellemoosthoek@aol.com

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